Jun 20 2005

Happy Bday Baby, To ME

Jeezy Creezy. What a weekend. I turn 31 today. If I have many more weekends like the one I just had, 32 is no guarantee. So instead of the exhaustive report, you get the exhausted report.

I landed in Detroit around 6 PM, turned on my cell phone upon departing the plane and had a message from Peabs waiting for me. "I have a blue shirt on, I'm tall and I'm gorgeous." Like I wouldn't remember what he looked like or something. :) We made our way downtown to my fave bar in The D*, the Town Pump. The plan was to have a beer while we wait for JP McKrengles and then head over to the game when he got there. Five beers later we finally made it over to the game (with JP in tow) during the 6th inning. Once we got inside, we met up with Grambo and Kerry SoSaysBest. And had more beers. We finally made it up to our seats in the 8th or 9th (by this point I wasn't really paying attention, I was craving hot dogs) and watched the fireworks after the game. Once that was done, we went back to Grambo's pad and drank 'til the early morn. As you do.

Saturday we slept in (glorious shut eye!), got some brunch, picked up Damore and went record shopping. I got three records by INXS so I'm sure we all can agree that the road trip was almost worth it right there. Now that Kick on vinyl had been revealed, we went over to the Grizz's house and began the pregame for the main event. CFriggs and LesCal joined us and around 5:30 we headed to the venue and started tailgaiting. Big Matt from MotorCityRocks and his crew joined us there, as did Peabs and Dr. Em, Medicine Woman. While we were tailgating, the Oasis Ice Cream truck kept driving around the parking lot and playing the Definitely Maybe DVD. It was a weird site. You can only imagine the sheer number of "I'll have a Champagne Supernova pop" and the "So, is that their new tourbus?" jokes that were flying about.

The show itself was great. Insanely so. Just like the last time I saw them, the new stuff sounded just as good as some of the older stuff in the Oasis catalog. In fact, Lyla, Love Like A Bomb and Songbird were the highlights for me. Shit, even Mucky Fingers sounded great. It was fucking mega and I had a great time. My throat is still sore from screaming like a little girl through the entire show. That and my calves are killing me. We watched he first few songs from a weird space on the lawn that has on a steep incline so I go quite the workout. After that we made our way down to the very front and had a great view of Liam, Gem and Andy, which kind of saddened me because of the venues "no camera" policy. Here are some pics from the Toronto show that I did not take, obvs.

The band was on their best behavior. The worst (best?) we got from them was Noel saying "This is from the record no one bought" before playing Little By Little. This review in the Freep really nails it.

With all the shit talking out there about Oasis (some of it deserved), I think many critics forget (or just gloss over) what a shit hot live act they are. You don't become the biggest band in the world for nothing. When Liam is focused on playing a great show, they can still reach those heights. When the band played Champagne Supernova on Saturday, Liam balanced his tambourine on his head, spread his arms out in a jesus christ pose and slowly crouched down and stood back up. The crowd went ape shit. When you can do something like that and the crowd goes mental, then you are doing something right. Andy Bell and Gem have really added a new dimension to the band's live sound (not to mention song writing). And while Zak Starkey is no Steve White, he's no Alan White either, which is a good thing. I was skeptical when he signed on for drumming duties, but he played a great show as well.

As great as the gig was, it got even more mental after the show. While we were waiting for the traffic to clear out, Grizz was walking around handing out potato chips to the cars waiting in line to leave. In between, he was running around shouting "INFORMATION LEAF BLOWER DOT COM SLASH BLOG" at the top of his lungs. It was quite literally the funniest effing thing I have ever seen in my life. He also came up with the best idea evs. Mister pink dot blogspot dot com. Mr. Pink will review albums on his blog. For everyone he likes, he will say PURR. For each one he doesn't like, he will say RAWR. Mars! Nobody beats the Grizz.

The weirdest moment of the night came as we were deciding what our post game actions would be and where they would be taking place when some random girl in a shiny union jack top came up and just started eating out of the other bag of chips we were passing around. We tried to talk to her but she was waaaaaaay too wasted to even communicate with us. The girls in our group took umbrage on her and after a good bit of coaxing we found out her boyfriend had left her and she lost her wallet, cell phone and keys during the show. Being the awesome people we are, we took her to her hotel (her boyfriend wasn't there either) and once we got the OK, left her in the hotel's care until he showed back up.

And just when I thought the night couldn't get any weirder, one of the people in our group got a call on their cell phone. On the other end of the call was none other than Chuck Klosterman. It's kind of a long story but it was fucking best.

After that we went back to the Grizz's house, started a fire and drank all his beer, tequila and champagne (obvs). I felt like ass on Sunday AM but I made my flight and returned to the DC in one piece.

Just as I did last time, I had a fucking blast in The D. The people there really know how to make someone feel at home and like one of their own. All you have to do is run around like a wildman and say "Best", "Worst" or "Dude, mars" alot. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

I fucking heart The D. Big ups to everyone there for a great weekend and an even better early birthday present. I haven't drank, laughed and lost that much sleep in way too long. Mars She. And thanks to Peabs for playing taxi and Grambo and The Grizz for being gracious enough to let me crash on their couches.

Comments

Dont ask me, how but some fella did manage to smuggle in a camera and took some pics from the Detroit show -- you can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unionjack24/ -- fucking MEGA indeed! I get to see them tonight and am ridiculously excited; glad you had a great time at the Detroit gig!

Happy B-day Leafblower. The D quite simply rocks. The best part about it for me is living across the river gives me the nicest view at night. Unfortunately the people who live in the D get the shithole of a city Windsor to check out once it gets dark and must wonder if there is anything more than a casino to the place.